STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Tomorrow, we will be celebrating the 350th anniversary of the first permanent European settlement on Staten Island. The operative word is permanent.

There had been several other attempts to establish settlements on Staten Island, but they all failed, mostly because of the way the settlers treated the natives. While details of these attempts and the precise reasons for their failure are sketchy, the following account pieces together their story from numerous documents.

The first recorded attempt to colonize Staten Island was in 1638-39, when a Dutchman named David Pietersen de Vries started a plantation on the North Shore near Victory Boulevard and Bay Street.

Lacking sufficient resources to maintain his plantation, de Vries leased his property a year later to Thomas Smythe. Trouble soon followed and eventually de Vries’ attempt to colonize Staten Island ended in disaster.

Documents revealed that in 1641, a ship leaving New Amsterdam (present day Manhattan) stopped to take on fresh water at the “watering place (present day Tompkinsville). The ship’s sailors saw some pigs nearby and took them as well, not knowing or caring who owned them.

When the Dutch colonists found the pigs missing, they accused the Indians of stealing them and demanded the government of New Amsterdam take action. In response to the colonists’ demands, Director-General Kieft sent soldiers to punish the Indians, killing men, women and children as they slept.

In retaliation, the Indians attacked the settlement, killing a number of settlers and burning the plantation. The incident, referred to as the Pig War, ended the first attempt to establish a permanent settlement on the Island.

Records indicate that a second attempt took place later that year when Cornelis Melyn arrived from Holland with 41 colonists. This time, the Directors in New Amsterdam stationed soldiers near the colony to prevent any further misunderstandings with the Indians.

In 1642, Melyn was given title to the whole of Staten Island “with all the powers, jurisdictions and pre-eminences.” Disputes with the Indians were on the horizon and would result in his fall from grace. While the exact details that led to what has come to be known as the Whiskey War are disputed, it nevertheless resulted in the destruction of the colony.

One version involves traders and the local natives. Director-General Kieft helped to establish what is thought to be the first distillery in America in one of Melyn’s buildings. Despite laws prohibiting the sale of whiskey to the Indians, as one story goes, several unscrupulous traders gave them whiskey then took advantage of their drunken state to rob them of furs and other possessions.

When the Indians tried to recoup their property and were refused, war broke out and the colony was once again destroyed.

Another version surrounds a dispute over land. The Dutch built a brewery on land claimed by the Indians. When the Dutch refused to compensate the Indians for the land, the Indians retaliated and burned the brewery to the ground. In either event, the result was the same — total destruction of the colony.

According to Dutch records, the third attempt was made in late 1654 when patents (land grants) were once again issued to establish a colony; however, it to would also meet with disaster.

In 1655, Hendrick Van Dyck, the former Attorney General of New Amsterdam, was believed to be living in Oude Dorp (present-day Old Town). One morning he looked out his window to find an Indian squaw picking a peach from his garden. Infuriated, he ran to get his gun and shot the woman dead.

While the Dutch authorities did not think much of the incident, the Indians had a different reaction. They demanded the Governor deliver Van Dyck to them. When the Governor refused, several neighboring tribes banded together and attacked New Amsterdam. When the attack failed, they turned their furry on the settlement on Staten Island. Nearly everyone was either killed or captured, with most of the crops and houses destroyed.

The Dutch were anxious to end all hostilities with the Indians. They realized that unless and until a lasting peace was achieved, they could not continue to colonize the region.

Finally, in 1660, a delegation representing Indians of Long Island, Staten Island, Hackensack, N.J., Haverstraw and Westchester County met in New Amsterdam with Stuyvesant and his council.

A peace treaty was signed providing remedies for many of the reasons for the wars of the past, including compensation for land and a mechanism for bringing to justice both Dutchmen and Indians who violated the law/treaty.

This paved the way for the next and permanent colony on Staten Island, this time on the South Shore — 350 years ago. BITS & PIECES

Tomorrow, Staten Island will be celebrating its 350th birthday. There will be a grand birthday party complete with a craft and music festival on the St. George Plaza of the Staten Island ferry. Don’t miss this event! For more information, go to: www.si350.org